Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Well. Episode VIII. The Last Jedi. I went to the Orana Cinemas in Busselton with Merv to catch this and his first word to me as we were leaving was 'underwhelming?' (it was said as a question). I usually need a few hours to ruminate on films but I had to nod. Here's why I nodded.

First, and most importantly, it seems unsure of what it wants to be. The Force Awakens was an unashamedly nostalgic retread, great as it was. Rogue One was a brilliant, dark cracker, eschewing the sentiment of its forebears. For me, The Last Jedi had a cheek on both stools. I know that Rogue One was a stand-alone film but it still showed what a 'new' Star Wars film could be. Kylo Ren's recurring directive of killing everything old and beginning again has merit but the film took its time to realise this (in fact, it didn't quite and maybe won't until the future trilogy).

Speaking of Ren, the central theme of TLJ is neat and workable. Kylo and Rey being the dark and the light respectively and thus being almost inseperable is an intriguing concept, almost dirty at points (dirty in a good way).The money shot where Kylo shows his intentions with the turning and slicing is very nicely done. More needed to be made of this than just acting as a way for Ren to bitch about Skywalker ("He told you that, did he? And you believed him?")

The film is also packed with herrings of every colour. Disable the tracker! It's the only way to escape the First Order. Oh, hang on. Find the master codebreaker! Umm, couldn't get THAT one, how about Benicio? Kylo did a bad thing, hey but maybe Luke was in the wrong, no wait maybe it WAS Kylo, but, but.....pass the pickling jar.

Extra observations -:

• Too many unnecessary cutesy fuckers, especially those bird hamster thingies. Fuck off with your Mattel or Hasbro or Lego or whoever spews out these toys. Just concentrate on making a film or two.
• Not enough Chewie and it obviously misses Han.
• Gleeson overdoes it as Hux. 
• Leia and Luke don't have the impact they did in The Force Awakens.
• Isaac is ok but a bit too Top Gunny for my liking. 
• Ridley is good when she gets scenes with Driver, not so otherwise. 
• Boyega has nowhere near the material he did in TFA and suffers accordingly (the jaunt to the Casino city is a flabby waste of time - in overall film length AND narrative - but oooh some cool CGI to show off).

Overall, though the film is quite nice to look at in parts, it feels pretty empty. Kind of like trying to go back to a city where you once lived and had a great time but finding that things have moved on.


See also:

Rogue One (2016) to see that pearlers can be made in this universe and Brick (2005) for Rian Johnson's clever feature debut.

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